The Dallas Mavericks‘ arena turned 20 years old this summer, which means the Mavericks only have 10 years left on their lease, which means of course it’s time for team owner Mark Cuban to start talking about building a new one. He didn’t provide a lot of details in talking to the Dallas Morning News, but he did rattle at least a saber or two:
Cuban in the next breath told The Dallas Morning News without being asked: “I’d say the likelihood of us staying at the AAC right now is less than 50%.” …
“It’s going to take five or six years to build anything,” Cuban said. “So we’re not that far off from making a decision.” …
Why?
“Just because,” he said. “I think it’s time. You know, the AAC is beautiful and it’ll last forever. There’s just more things I want to do.”
Cuban then said that parking inconveniences near the arena are one issue — because it’s totally easier to build a whole new arena than to build a parking garage, or even a shuttle from the site of the team’s practice facility a mile away, which Cuban is thought to be eyeing for a new arena — and added that “it’s not optimized for fan experience coming into the arena any longer, like it was in the beginning.”
This is not the first time Cuban has talked about building a new arena: Five years ago, he floated (no pun intended) the idea of building an arena on the 20th floor of a skyscraper, which was quickly categorized under “things that Mark Cuban just says because he’s Mark Cuban” and then forgotten. He also said two years ago that it would take “five, six years” for him to decide whether to renew his lease in 2030, so either he’s ahead of schedule or he considers another 3-4 years to be “not that far off.”
The big question, as always, is who would pay for the rich guy’s new toy. The current arena got $125 million in public money, toward what after cost overruns ended up being a then-record $420 million price tag; going halfsies seems to be a common practice for sports stadiums in the Dallas area, though as we’ve seen before, there are lots of ways for taxpayers to be hit with additional tabs that aren’t construction costs per se. Cuban is worth $4.5 billion at last check, so he could certainly afford to fund a new building entirely out of his own pocket, but so could these guys, and they’re instead looking for one of the biggest sports subsidies ever — it’s not about what you can spend, it’s about what you can convince other people to spend.
The NBA wants its teams to own their arena and surrounding “ballpark village”, and that’s not possible at the AAC. It’s why Seattle and Las Vegas won’t be getting teams any time soon. (The Knicks and Lakers are the exceptions for now, because their arenas are attractions on their own.)
The Celtics and Bulls will be the interesting ones to watch in the coming years. Obviously those two franchises have zero move-threat leverage, so they will need Neil and other influencers to change their POV in order to get a Seattle-like situation where huge tax kickbacks make a new arena worth building.
Oh good, then the NBA will be all for the owners paying the arena (and ballpark villages) property taxes too. You know, taking responsibility for themselves as they pull themselves ever further up the ladder by their own strength of will (and bootstraps! Can’t forget the bootstraps!)
Those taxes can go to what everyone else’s property taxes go to, providing government services including schools, hospitals, police and fire departments, rather than paying off a billionaire’s welfare playground.
Sounds like a win win to me. Mr. Chabenisky gets his playground, the city and state get their tax money.
He should be only too happy to pay, as one of the few Americans who actually managed to work his way up from hustling chain letters and bootlegging newspapers during a strike to making billions selling an internet company that turned out to be worthless to Yahoo (who should have known better, of course).
Of course, Mark’s grandparents were immigrants (Russia and Romania, IIRC) and we all know how those folks are thought of today. Maybe instead of American taxpayers building him an arena, he should be sent “back where he came from”?
The Bulls and the Chicago Hockey Team have plenty of room around the United Center if they wanted to build attractions. Problem is, they have competition with existing bars and attractions. Even with two teams playing there, and drawing well, the place sits idle most of the summer. You’d have to make a profit on just 80 to 100 nights a year.
Hmmmn. 2011 seems like such a long time ago…
https://blogmaverick.com/2011/09/19/the-most-patriotic-thing-you-can-do-2/
This isn’t about not having the area around the stadium, because Victory Plaza is probably top 25% easily for adjacent, large, controlled space at the arena. This is more likely wanting to break off from the co-ownership with the Stars of the assets, and try to monopolize revenue with a solo facility.
The access argument is a joke, because it is served directly by rail (not a given in the car-centric Metroplex) and has decent highway access and not terrible parking (although probably about 33% is not under team control– can’t have any revenue sucked up by little lot owners).
Sure, 10 years things will change a bit, but the AAC is currently one of the best indoor arenas in the country with its design, including sight lines, acoustics, and variety of seat types. Just like the Rangers leaving a fully beloved and great ballpark for a soulless hanger, it’d be a shame if the AAC has too short of a life as well.